The Student Lifecycle Project is the largest business-led transformation projects in the largest campus university in the UK. This will impact every student, staff member and academic in this great university. We will use technology to enable a solid extensible platform for improving student and staff experience. My role is Business Lead, Senior Product Owner and Change Lead.

In October 2014 Janet(UK) was merged into Jisc. Jisc had previously been a committee, but become a company and in doing so merged in many disparate organisations. For some time Janet continued to operate with a high degree of autonomy, however it was clear that Jisc would face many of the challenges that had been addressed in Janet.My role was initially within Jisc Technologies (previously Janet), however I was then asked to bring the Product Management approach across Jisc. The many different starting points, the wide range of services and projects, together with a poor transition, has meant this is a major cultural and practical transformation programme. I have delivered a three stage plan. I have firstly establishing the core processes, systems and templates to underpin a consistent, transparent and co-ordinated approach to our products and services. I have designed a new operating model for Jisc that is more business-like but flexible to respect that the company will need to evolve. This has been signed off by the company and I am currently leading the implementation, working with every part of the company in a collaborative way. In parallel I am working on the third part of the plan, to deliver product and portfolio strategies and roadmaps for every service that Jisc provides, to help prioritisation of investments, maximum return for Jisc and maximum benefit for our members.I also continue to run Cloud Services for Jisc and oversee various other projects and services.

My move to concentrate on Product Management resulted in a new role, Director of Product & Marketing. Other areas that I had created in my previous role were, by this point, sufficiently robust and effective to be transferred to Operations where they continued to deliver good results.My emphasis was on creating Product Management as a core function enabling the business questions to be asked at the right time to get the right products and portfolio. I overhauled existing business processes to embed lifecycle management, and addressed areas such as budget sign-offs, service hand-over and new investments. As I maintained a high customer focus, I was also able to anticipate changes within the IT market and moved Janet toward being a leader in data centres and cloud services in the education sector. As well as establishing a Cloud Brokerage I initiated potentially the largest shared data centre project in UK education at that point, and I led UK, European and Global cloud services initiatives.I successfully developed cyber-security as a prominent part of the portfolio, acquiring a cyber-security company, and launched of new services and I developed a more professional approach to commercial opportunities and vendor management. Building relations, such as with Microsoft, that have increased profile, generated new revenue streams, new projects and embedded Janet technology into commercial companies.

Moving to Janet, this national and international network company was a great fresh challenge. Janet was a public sector company looking to be more commercial. As Head of Strategic Business I identified the gaps in the company, with no real marketing ability, limited appreciation of commercial value, poor digital platform usage and outdated processes. There is little point in creating opportunities if they cannot be delivered.With board approval I restructured the Communications function to create a Marketing team bringing a new discipline and orientation truly focused on the needs and aspirations of customers and users.I built a core competence around digital channels and systems, taking the web, systems and information architecture from being disparate, ad-hoc and largely outsourced to being co-ordinated and central to activities. This included overhauling existing websites, consistent development platforms, agreed processes and ownership of platforms and content. Customers benefitted from vastly improved experiences and a rapidly growing community platform to share knowledge and best practice.I also identified a fundamental chasm between the development of services and their operations. Much like many companies Operations would inherit services without a business case, budget or customers. To solve this, and to bring real scrutiny to our investments I needed to bring in Product Management into Janet.

Manchester Business School Worldwide is a commercial subsidiary of University of Manchester delivering blended learning education postgraduate programmes to 3,500 students in 80 plus countries. Created by the purchase of BME by University of Manchester it employs approximately 50 employees in 8 global offices, some 100 contracted academics and a turnover of £7.5 million.SMT member responsible for programmes and courses, matching course offerings and delivery with commercial needs to ensure market oriented courses and programmes; and for information technology, strategy, development and implementation. Responsible for the business processes underpinning programme delivery, from materials design and management through to contractual arrangements and recruitment of senior academic staff. IT and Programme Development strategy - Business Process Redesign, Programme design and development, budgetary and management responsibility.

Responsible for a Information Technology and Technology Enhanced Learning at MBSW.Manage a team with budget responsibility for technical operations in the design and implementation of educational programmes.Ensure alignment of IT structures and systems to meet company needs through business process development, developing and implementing new solutions.Responsible for technology enhanced learning development, provision and support, supporting the education and IT needs of 2,500 students in 80+ countries.Managed development and implementation of support portal (for all courses/students), student records systems (for entire company) as well as migrating all courses online and developing richer content.

Responsible for managing and administering server and hardware infrastructure (including MS Windows, Novell and Unix), and managing and developing network systems. I led on educational IT development and initiated the creation of online support for students and the development of the first company student support site. Contributed to business process development, removing outdated paper-basedprocesses and introducing automation. Liaised with stakeholders and external organisations on the creation and provision of services such as electronic libraries and information services.